WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — West Columbia's Fourth Annual Kinetic Derby Day will kick off this Saturday along Meeting Street, where all of the soapbox derby car racing will begin.
But this year in particular, a few contestants are in it for more than just winning.
It's off to the races Saturday morning for creative, artistic and engineering minds involved in the Kinetic Derby.
One of those groups is West Columbia Girl Scout Troop 3395.
While the race is just moments of fun, they've been preparing months in advance.
"This has really been a year-long endeavor for us," Girl Scouts leader Karen Quinn said. "We started in the fall with doing an engineering journey where the girls got to make and create products together and learn to problem solve and work on activities together. They did a woodworking badge and so, with all of that experience under their belts, then we dove into creating the car."
A Kinetic Derby vehicles must be human powered, with no motors and no electricity.
Quinn says 20 juniors and cadets built and designed the car back in January.
They chose the theme, "When is plastic fantastic," to promote more recycling in the West Columbia community.
"Like the Columbia Riverkeeper, we helped do a river cleanup with them and learn about how we can reduce plastic use, and we thought that worked great with Earth Day and the message of Kinetic Derby Day," Quinn said.
Not only will the Girl Scouts be involved in the race, but they'll also be running a booth at the STEAM fair following the race showing folks their plastic bag bracelets, bookmarks and earrings.
"They're very excited. I mean, as you can imagine, something they've been working at for a whole year and to see it come to fruition is a really special point in time, so we're excited as troop leaders to see them and the parade is going to be wonderful," Quinn said.
Soapbox Derby participants can register and get in a few test runs starting at 10 a.m. on Meeting Street.
The event is free and open to everyone, with a parade at 10 a.m., a STEAM festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the racing starts at 11 a.m.